Quidditch and Mouthing Off
by Kelsey
Summary: A moment in time-- a grown Harry asks Remus to help with his teenage son. Includes alluded-to SBRL.


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Quidditch and Mouthing Off

By

Kelsey

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Disclaimer: JKR's, not mine.

Summary: When Harry's son gets in a new sort of trouble at school, Harry asks Remus for help.

Rating: PG

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There was a roar of fire, and a thud, and then a voice called out. "Remus?"

Remus smiled into his afternoon tea. "In the kitchen, Harry."

Harry appeared in the doorway, smiling at his former professor. "Afternoon, Remus." He seemed cheerful enough, but Remus could see the faint lines of concentration and worry running through his features.

"Hello. Have a seat, let me get you some tea."

Harry shook his head and slid into the chair Remus had motioned to. "No, thanks. I've just been to tea at the Weasley's, I'm drowned in it."

Remus smiled. Molly still thought one could solve everything with enough tea, then. "I'm well aware of the problem."

Harry stared at the table for a long moment, tapping his cleanly-cut nails on the polished wooden surface. His wavy hair, which he left slightly longer now than he had as a teenager, fell into his eyes and he brushed it away. "I need some help."

"With?" Remus raised a single eyebrow and waited.

"Gabe."

Ah. Well, the boy had been getting into enough trouble to make Sirius proud lately, but what Remus could help with, he wasn't sure. Despite his prefecture, Remus had hardly been a model student himself, during his Hogwarts years. "What do you think I can do?" He asked evenly.

Harry ran a hand through his still-black hair and the lines that appeared on his face made him appear his age for the first time that day. Thirty-six years of worry had been unexpectedly kind to Harry, for the most part, but they did inevitably show every once in a while. "You know I've been getting owls every third day this year?"

Remus raised his eyebrow again. That was a lot. James and Sirius, at their best, had only managed a couple of detentions a week. And they'd rarely been able to keep up the pace for long. "Any specific problems?"

"He's been sneaking out."

"Of the castle?"

Harry nodded. "Nobody's really sure how. I haven't given him the cloak, you know."

Remus nodded. Though traditionally, the Potter family invisibility cloak went to its heir during their first year at Hogwarts, Harry's fame had necessitated a means of easy escape be available sometimes, and he'd needed the cloak far more than Gabe. "Perhaps more hidden passages?" He suggested.

Harry shrugged. "Maybe. Anyway, how he's getting out isn't so important-- it's what he's apparently been doing."

Putting down the cup, Remus focused his full attention on Harry. "Go on."

A sigh. "Dumbledore called me into his office last week at three in the morning last week. Apparently he'd collared Gabe sneaking around the castle, and when asked what he was doing..." Harry tucked his head into his hands and trailed off.

"Harry? Are you alright?"

Harry looked up, his expression somewhere between amusement and concern for his son. "He told Dumbledore he'd been out 'exploring some parts of the anatomy they don't cover at Hogwarts.'"

Remus sat back. "Oh."

"Yeah, _oh_." Harry laughed, the sound a little high-pitched. "Can you believe he mouthed off at _Dumbledore_ like that? I mean, you, me, Ron, maybe, but _Dumbledore?"_

The werewolf shook his head. "Gabriel has often reminded me of James, and that is most definitely something Prongs would have said." He smiled a little at the memory, then added "Sirius, too."

Glancing over, his keen eyes quickly picked out the discomfort still apparent in Harry's face. "Did something else happen?" He asked. "The girl isn't pregnant, is she?"

Harry shook his head. "There is no girl."

"Oh." So that was why Harry was here.

Harry laughed again. "I started in on the lecture, you know, the one you're supposed to give when you find out your kids are having sex, and he stops me two seconds in, says 'that one doesn't apply, Dad.' So I ask what he means, and he scuffs his foot and says, 'I'm gay.'"

Harry takes a deep breath.

"I asked him why he hadn't told me. After all, he knows Seamus is gay, and that doesn't bother me."

"What did he say?"

"He said he thought it might be different if it was my son. So I told him of course it wasn't, and I would never judge someone like that, but that I did want to meet the boy."

Harry put his head in his hands again. "Except that there isn't _a_ boy. He says he 'trolls clubs' when he goes out."

Remus sat back and digested for a moment. He was the boy's honorary grandfather-slash-uncle, and he was no more glad than Harry to find out that Gabe was sneaking out of the castle to have anonymous sex. But on the other hand, he had lived through the seventies, and he'd had his share of casual sex. Admittedly, it had been with his two best friends, but it wasn't like it had meant anything. Not when they were Gabe's age.

"What did you do?"

"I gave him a lecture about staying in the castle. Told him I'd take his broom if he snuck out again. And sent him to see Madam Pomfrey."

"You realize that there are inevitably other gay boys at Hogwarts?"

Harry sighed and nodded. "I also sent him a big 'ol box of condoms that will hopefully appear with the morning owl post." A devious smile crossed his face.

Remus laughed. "I'm not sure if that will embarrass him or give him something to boast about."

Harry shrugged. "I'm not sure either. But either way, it'll make an impact." He rubbed his forehead. "Anyway, I needed to talk. But I was also hoping that maybe you'd talk to Gabe?"

"Of course, Harry. But--"

Harry held up a hand. "If this is about that three-way bed switching with my dad and Sirius when you were sixteen, I don't want to know."

Remus's calm expression slipped for a fraction of a second, and then he smirked. "Where did you hear about that?" He asked.

"One of my mom's old diaries." He rubbed his head again. "Some things you just do _not_ need to know about your father and his best friends."

Remus pondered this for a moment. "Lily knew." He rolled the thought around in his head.

"Yes, Mum knew. Now, could you just ask him to please keep it to the population at Hogwarts-- and the _student_ population, possibly?"

The older man laughed. "I hardly think Ron is going to shag him, Harry. And I doubt the others are his type, really."

Harry made a face. "He'd better not. Though it does sound like he'd just be another notch on the ol' bedpost."

"Ron wouldn't sleep with Gabe, and you know it, or you'd be much more upset. Now, of course I'll talk to him-- when would be a good time?"

Harry shrugged. "Anytime, I guess. I told Dumbledore I was hoping you'd stop by and have a word with him, so he can pull Gabe out of class. He's got Quidditch practice Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and Sunday mornings, so you should probably steer clear of those."

A nod and a grin. "Potters are just built for Quidditch, I guess."

Harry nodded and grinned back ruefully. "And mouthing off and getting in trouble..." He glanced at his watch. "I'd better get back. Work is going to want me." He stood.

Remus rose as well, and walked him to the fireplace. "Why'd you floo, anyway?" He asked. It was a well-known fact that Harry _hated_ to floo.

The latter wrinkled his face at the question. "Headquarters is all warded. No apparating in or out."

"Is that new?"

"Yeah. Some lunatic apparated in last month with a cursing toilet-- got quite a few complaints from some of the mums. So now we can floo into individual offices or departments or whatever, and crazy lunatics have a harder time coming in through the front door."

Remus laughed. "Good to know all is well at the Ministry," he said. "And I'll go see Gabe soon, I promise. Good-bye, Harry."

"Bye, Remus." The younger man stepped into the fireplace, tossed the powder at his feet and called for Auror headquarters, which was, amusingly enough, called "Lunatic Lounge."

Remus laughed again, closed the floo for the evening, and went to find something to read before turning in for the night.

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